John McCallum told to forget Leon McKenzie appeal

NEIL McGLADE

Promoter Steve Goodwin has ordered Edinburgh boxer John McCallum to forget about the past and move on with his career.

McCallum, 27, recently lost his British super middleweight title-eliminator with former footballer Leon McKenzie, the Scot having to be withdrawn at the end of the sixth round due to cuts to his right eye.

However, the former Leith Victoria amateur revealed he intends to lodge an appeal to the British Boxing Board of Control, a move Goodwin, who promoted the fight at York Hall, London, believes would be a complete waste of time.

“John needs to move on with his career,” the English promoter explained. “John McCallum is a very good fighter. I really like John and get on well with him and he will win titles. But he needs to move on with his future and forget about the past. He lost the fight. The Boxing Board have said it was a retirement by the corner so there are no grounds for an appeal.”

Goodwin has told McCallum he must ensure he has a more professional team in his corner for future bouts.

“If he’d had a proper cutsman in his corner then he would have been able to have stemmed the flow of blood and I think John would have continued,” Goodwin said. “He may have been ahead in the fight but he did not win every round.

“The referee did not stop the fight and the doctor didn’t deem the injury enough to stop the fight. His corner pulled him out so it goes down that he retired on his record.”

Goodwin says he is hoping McCallum will be back in action early next year.

“I hope he will be back fighting in February or March sometime back up in Scotland,” he said. “He can still be a champion but he needs to learn his lesson. That fight against Leon McKenzie does not define him as a boxer.”

As for the pre-fight build up that saw McCallum and McKenzie at loggerheads over the latter’s battle with depression, Goodwin added: “I know whatever John said was to get under Leon’s skin. But he’s not that sort of person and in hindsight he may possibly regret the way he said some of the things. It got out of hand as it turned from a little bit of banter to build up a fight to something that went a little too far.”